I'm absolutely blown away to announce My Heaven's Dale has reached 1,000 sales already! As a solo developer, seeing a project that started from passion reach so many players is an indescridable feeling...
I wanted to share a bit of "behind the scenes" look at how My Heaven's Dale came to life.
My Heaven's Dale went through a lot of graphical changes since 2024. Initially, I was still learning pixel art should be made at a 1:1 scale (1px) and then upscaled later if needed.
I spent 2 months learning how to draw while completely ignoring this rule, and I ended up having to redo the entire graphics a while later, after all, every single asset had inconsistent pixel sizes.
I used to draw characters from different titles using this classic Mega Man sprite template. It was a great way to learn how to work with smaller pixel sizes and also get a much better sense of colors.
Redrawing your art during the process is standard procedure for any developer who is constantly improving. This naturally increases development time, but in the end, it’s a trade-off that is absolutely worth it!
(That's Leo changes during My Heaven's Dale development)
(A step-by-step of how I'm used to make Face Graphics)
(But pixel art wasn't the only style I improved, I also practiced digital drawing every single day. I needed promotional art for the Steam Page, but since I didn't have any budget to hire an real artist, I decided to learn it step by step during development)
(You'd think I made this drawing in less than a day, but sketching the male protagonist was a whole week-long process of making changes and adding details before I even started applying colors, I made a final change you can see through the most recent cover)
(I've always had a great ally, my little notebook. I still take it with me to my job and sketch ideas during my breaks. Here is a little sketch from when I was planning the game's maps.)
(My Heaven's Dale was developed at night after I got home from work, every single day. Here is an example of how I managed what needed to be done during development, each mechanic was broken down into several checklists. It gave me a lot of satisfaction to see tasks get crossed off!)
If you have spent some time in Heaven's Dale and are enjoying the experience, please take a quick minute to leave an honest review! This is an incredibly vital resource for small developers, and your opinion helps future players a lot!
My Heaven's Dale will continue to receive free updates after the first month of release. Before that, I will be providing full support, resolving issues, and answering questions directly here on the Steam forums. Thank you!